Running time: 112 minutes
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Belllo, Luke Ford, John Hannah, Michelle Yeoh
Rating 5 out of 10
A friend recently interviewed Brendan Fraser and asked him what had induced him to do a third Mummy film. Had the producers backed a truckload of money up to his front door? Or was it an irresistible script? Fraser laughed. Equally telling, he didn't say which it was. The world could quite happily have survived without a sequel to 2001's The Mummy Returns, certainly one as feeble as this. It's not like the 19-year gap between Indiana Jones films, a void the Mummy was created to fill. Although there are obvious parallels between the two franchises, it's actually the Carry On series that springs to mind with Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Director Rob Cohen is best known for The Fast and the Furious and he's brought the same frenetic style to The Mummy, perhaps in the hope that if the action is equally fast and furious, no one would notice how bad it was. If so, he failed. The majority of the effects are glaringly computer generated, though some scenes, like the epic battle sequence involving an army of skeletons, are imbued with some humour by way of a distraction. Other times it is the film's silliness that is distracting. Cries of 'There's a mummy on the loose,' are more inclined to invoke laughter than set the pulse racing.
The cliched voiceover uttering, 'Long ago,' was an auspicious start and set the tone for the uninspired events that follow. There's no doubt Brendan Fraser is very personable on screen and he tries valiantly as the heroic explorer Rick O'Connell to keep things light, but as a result it's harder to buy into the film's more dramatic moments. The film affords itself some quieter, more personal scenes when centering on the parental failings of Rick and his wife Evelyn (Maria Bello) as they try to reconnect with their grown-up son Alex (Luke Ford), who has followed in his father's intrepid footsteps.
When we first meet up with Rick and Evelyn, they are having a hard time adapting to retired life. Rattling around in their stately home getting bored, they jump at the chance for a new adventure when approached to return an ancient Chinese relic, the Eye of Shangri La, to its people. In China they bump into Alex who has discovered the tomb of Emperor Han (Jet Li) whose plans to rule the world and find the secret of eternal youth were ended by the curse of the witch Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh). When followers of Han capture the Eye of Shangri La, they use it to bring the emperor back to life, along with his Terracotta Army, and once again put the world in danger.
Poor John Hannah gets the slapstick role of Jonathan Carnahan, Alex's wealthy uncle, who gets to bandy about such pearls as 'I hate mummies. They never play fair.' Add to the mix some laughable Abominable Snowmen and a premise involving mummies in China and you have yourself an action adventure that's more risible than deliberately funny. This is one mummy that definitely should have remained under wraps.
Kevin Murphy
